Hemodynamic monitoring measures the blood pressure inside the veins, heart, and arteries. It also measures blood flow and how much oxygen is in the blood. It is a way to see how well the heart is working.
Many treatments depend on seeing small changes in the way the heart is working. These changes happen first deep inside the body. It may take time for these changes to show at the body surface, where they can be observed more easily. Hemodynamic monitoring can detect these changes early by testing samples of blood from deep inside the body.
Hemodynamic monitoring helps your healthcare provider know if you will need blood or fluid transfusions. It shows whether the lungs are getting enough oxygen. It checks how well the heart is pumping by measuring the total blood flow per minute.
This test may be done, for example, if you are in intensive care recovering from a heart attack or if you have fluid around your heart.
Blood pressure in the arteries can be checked by putting a short, thin tube through your skin and into one of your arteries, usually a wrist artery. (Before the tube is inserted, you will be given a shot to numb the area.) The blood pressure measurement is displayed on a TV. The tube in your artery also makes it easy to get blood samples to measure the oxygen level in the blood.
A very thin, flexible tube called a catheter may be used to allow your healthcare provider to measure the blood pressure in your pulmonary artery. This is the artery that brings blood to the lungs. Your provider puts the catheter through your skin and into a vein. The veins most commonly used are in the neck, under the collarbone, or in the leg. A small balloon at the tip of the catheter helps the catheter float through the heart and into the pulmonary artery. When the catheter is in the right position, the balloon is deflated and the catheter is left in place. The catheter does not cause any pain. This catheter may be called a right heart catheter, a pulmonary artery catheter (PAC), or a Swan-Ganz catheter.
The pulmonary artery catheter can also measure the amount of blood pumped by the heart and the amount of oxygen in the blood. These measurements show how well the heart's left ventricle is working. The left ventricle is the main pumping chamber of the heart. Very small changes in your blood flow and the pumping ability of your heart can be detected with this catheter.
Most hemodynamic monitoring is done for just a few days.
This test can find problems with how the heart is working. Treating problems early may prevent complications. This is very important for some people who need to have surgery or who are very sick.
There is a risk of infection. Although the tubes are sterile when they are put into your body, the longer they are in your body, the higher your risk of infection. Bleeding can also be a problem, but severe bleeding problems are rare.
Rarely, a lung may collapse when the tube is inserted into the heart. It is usually easy to know when a lung has collapsed, and the lung can be quickly reinflated. Abnormal heart rhythms may also occur.
